Writer of no fixed format

I have to start by saying that this is an odd residency for me – no fixed location, no need to leave home, yet I’m linked to an organisation. I have tried to think of what I can compare it to, and the best I could come up with is – it’s a bit like being the object of someone’s affections: you know that you’re present in the web of their imagination, you get occasional signs – a letter here, a kiss on the cheek, a phone call there – but you never quite KNOW what the impact of that affection is. In this case, I guess I may get blog comments instead of kisses…

Anyway, introductions first: my name is Nii Ayikwei Parkes and I am a writer of no fixed format. I write mainly poetry, but I have also written non-fiction scripts for radio, a play, several short stories, reviews and a very recent novel. I have always said that expression comes first and form is secondary so I suppose my work reflects that. Having said that, poetry is my first love because I am much less talkative on a page than I am in person – it is little wonder that my first novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, is only 176 pages long!

I began to write through mimicry, I guess. My late father used to wake up early in the morning to read or write before he went to work (he was what one could call an écrivain manqué) and I used to sit beside him, just to be close to him really. After a while, because I wasn’t allowed to disturb him, I began to write on a bit of paper while we sat out on the porch in Accra. That, I think, was the trigger – and then other things played their part, but that’s another story. The bottom line is, I had something to say and the paper was willing to listen.

These days, things are a little different. On one level, I now have an inkling of how my father must have felt to have me hanging on to every free moment he could spare, because I have a daughter myself and sometimes when she looks at me I think: ‘Heavens, what have I done? She is relying on me for everything.’ But at the same time, I realise that I have a captive audience for the next twelve years at least – which is more than most writers get in their entire careers.

So, while I have you captive in this virtual-vice-residency-type-thing, I will try to share some insights, give tips on writing and reading poetry – for example, are there boundaries between page and stage when it comes to verse? I believe that there aren’t any real boundaries – it’s a question of communication: on the page, you work within a space construct, on stage you work within a time construct (OK, confession here, I trained as a scientist so I may use some odd terms sometimes – just let me know when it gets confusing). I am hoping that – with apologies to Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam – the first blog is the hardest; once I start getting some questions, comments, and suggestions, when we start to communicate, it should get easier. Oh, my first writing tip? Start.